You Light My Lamp

For You light my lamp; 

The LORD my God illumines my darkness. 

(Ps. 18:28 NASB)

There was just a tiny crack at the bottom of the shade in the window above my bathtub, but it was just enough light and at just the right angle that it caused me to stop and consider the strange occurrence sitting on the tub surround.

Light streamed from the crack above through an empty votive holder. The candle has needed to be replaced for some time now so I knew it wasn’t lit. Refracting, bending through amber glass the light shown in and through the votive to reflect on the tile surround. It was joy in a tiny miracle—a light in a votive with no candle.

The light showing in and through that votive found it luminosity from outside the window, the sun climbing toward noon to close up another morning. Slipping through a crack in the shade, the beauty of refracted light made me stop and take notice.

Everyday I wake and pick up something to try to get the light of life my lit. I was made to shine---not for my glory but for God’s. Lately, it has been a struggle that has left me feeling like a candle without a wick, unable to burn at all.

God sent me a little lesson this morning and it wasn’t a science lesson on the refraction of light. What I am realizing is that the only way that God’s glory can be shone through me is when He is the source.  He shines light in and through me to his glory. I don’t even need a candle or a wick. All I need to be is a vessel placed humbly before the Light. God is the source of  His own shining.  He doesn’t need me laboring about how in the world to give Him glory. He is willing and able to do that through any crack I provide to let His glory shine.

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.  (James 1:17 NASB)

.